I've spent a lot of time studying authoritarian systems. They usually involve some form of consent of the governed, tho' obviously not always. And what we have now as a de facto system is authoritarian. It's not particularly oppressive, which is different; there are "soft" and "hard" authoritarian systems, at least in theory - tho' in reality they trend towards oppression more and more over time.

I will gladly say that the US is not very oppressive at this point - at least, not internally. It's certainly, absolutely not. But the structures, outside the court system (...barely...), are now authoritarian in outline and function, and I stand by that. An authoritarianism of angels would still be authoritarian.